Friday, 21 December 2012

I participated in a "Secret Santa" activity with my co-workers, but when I drove into work I forgot my Secret Santa gift at home. So I went to Wal-Mart and purchased another gift (flash drive ... I work with IT geeks ... it was a big hit). :)

But then I had my original Secret Santa gift at home. It was Coconut body butter from the Body Shop (my department is 50% women ... Go Estrogen!). I thought about keeping the Body Butter, but then I realized I could regift it to someone who could use a pick-me-up.

I gave it to our receptionist Amy who is always cheerful and helpful. I even signed "28 Random Acts of Kindess for Newtown" at the bottom this time (although left my name off of it) so I could spread the word.

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

I read about Ann Curry's challenge to perform some random acts of kindness as a way of honouring the lives lost in Newton last week and I thought it was an amazing idea. Of course, we shouldn't need a tragedy to remind us to be nice to one another on Planet Earth ... it is common sense after all. But it seems like every once in awhile you need to be reminded to focus on it.

I'm going to try to document my random acts in my blog ... emphasis on 'try'. I'm also going to try to ensure my random acts don't cost me $$. Not because I'm averse to paying for things .... but I think it's far more interesting to try to do it without just plunking down money. Of course, if you want your random act to involve paying for something for me, I am all good.

Random Act #1 - I wrote a thank you note to a co-worker who organized a Christmas toy drive. I also made it anonymous so he wouldn't know it's me who wrote it.

Friday, 28 September 2012

The short-lived Smith. Jonny Lee Miller
AND Simon Baker? I can see why that wouldn't work ... groan ..

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I'm a huge TV fan, and September is always my favourite time of the year. New shows!! New shows that will probably be cancelled in a few weeks .. but new shows!

I actually stopped watching TV the last few years since the networks were so quick to cancel them. I didn't want to get too invested only to have my hopes for greatness dashed (Smith, anyone???). Unfortunately, by not watching new shows, all it did was make me rewatch past favourites in order to get my fix. So this year I bought a DVR and have decided to give a lot of new shows a chance.

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He's like the Channing Tatum
of crime-fighters ... and those scars\

are all kinds of sexy ...

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Although it's still a little early to figure out which ones are going to be great, and which ones are going to be this year's "Whitney" ... I'm at least excited about them! I missed that ...

#5 The Last Resort

﻿﻿Scott Speedman is a fave, but a show on a submarine/island seems like a tough sell. Word on the street is the first episode is of Lost-like quality though, so I'll give this one a chance.﻿﻿ But he'd better be shirtless in a vampire coven at some point ...

#4 The Mindy Project﻿﻿﻿﻿

Is it wrong to fantasize about his socks?
My crush is getting Creepytown isn't it ...

﻿﻿﻿﻿I'm so-so on Mindy Kaling, but love the Bridget Jones' Diary in America kind of concept. First episode was okay ... loved her drunk on a bike yelling "I'm Sandra Bullock" ... but I'll wait to see how it pans out. I remember I didn't like the first episode of New Girl, and look how that turned out ...

#3 Arrow

﻿Just started watching the Vampire Diaries last year and kicked myself for missing it when it originally aired. Do you know how many months I was unaware of The Damon? Too many ... Not going to make that mistake with the CW this time. And this guy has serious Damon potential.

#2 Ben and Kate

I had no desire to see this show until I saw the trailer last week, and then was hooked!! And Dakota Johnson (Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson's daughter) can actually act!! It's one of those shows you're either going to love or you're going to hate .. and I loved it!

#1 Elementary

Jonny Lee Miller. That's all I need to say. I don't care if this is the worst show on TV ... I'm in no matter what. But please don't let it suck.

Well, I said I would check-in regularly and this week was pretty disappointing ... but now that I have to own it publicly hopefully that will make next week a little more productive. I only wrote Tuesday night and only 357 words. That's not awesome.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Hopping back on the bandwagon ... but will
resist asking Amanda Bynes for any
driving tips.

Okay, so about a month ago I said I was building a new habit. And then managed it for about 7 days and then stopped reporting on it altogether.

What happened?

I could blame it on the new television schedule but since I've got my new, shiny DVR taping all my soon-to-be favourite shows, this would be an all-out lie (side note - have decided Elementary will be my favourite new show - Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes?? Drooling as I type this ...)

The truth? I stopped spending time on the habit ... and even worse ... started to hide away when I realized I wasn't keeping on track. If I don't report on my failures then they can't be failures, right???

As someone who's a Project Manager in real life, I can tell you that the absolute worst thing you can do when stuff is falling off the track is stop reporting on it. Once you stop keeping track of how you're doing, it's very easy to ignore the problem indefinitely. Even if you have to report fail after fail after fail, it's better than not showing up at all ... and as I've seen on most of my projects, once the failures start adding up it often spurs you into action!

So, I 'm jumping back into it and will vow to report on my progress ... no matter how terrible. No one said this writing stuff would be easy ....

Tuesday, 21 August 2012

I bet you thought I forgot all about this little habit-building journey I was on, didn't you? Well, I didn't -- I just ended up taking a little break.

My day-job sent me across the country last week, and even though I had all good intentions to write while I was away, the job kept me going from early morning until late at night. I did manage to haul my butt off to a Denny's at 5:30am the first day I was there and wrote for 45 minutes (yay!) ... but after that I tanked. No writing at all! And taking the red-eye back home didn't help me over the weekend.

But I'm back to it ... and this morning I got up early to write. Got derailed by laundry and then drove to the day-job telling myself I would make sure I wrote before I started the day-job.

And I did! I worked on my query letter for forty-five minutes today (much, much harder than it looks when you read other people's letters, isn't it??).

Friday, 10 August 2012

Woohoo!! I hit 965 words in the last session. I'm very, very happy with that and I got through the hard part - the kiss! Now I just need to tie this scene up, clean up the rough edges, and send it onto my crit partners. Yay!!

My new habit is designed for weekdays only. I alwasys feel a lot of pressure to write every day, but I also know I need some breaks, so I've decided to give myself weekends off. And since I was pretty good at writing this week - not great, but good - I'm going to count this week as a success!!

Thanks for all the 'pump-me-up' messages. Looking forward to enjoying my wine tonight! See you Monday!

Thursday, 9 August 2012

The classic 'kiss with a leg lift' ... I give them a 15.8 for
execution.
[Photo by Ohcaroliiina]

I wrote last night! 432 words. Not the 750 I wanted, but I'm happy with 432. I'm working on a scene where my characters kiss, and admittedly I'm lousy at these scenes. They aren't my strong suit and I find them excruciating to write. Thinking about them in my head? All good. But writing them down is painful.

One of my critique partners, Anne MacFarlane, is really, really good at love scenes. They look effortless when she does them, but when I write them I seem to focus too much on the mechanical parts and it feels so clunky. I *should* practice them on a regular basis and then they probably wouldn't feel so foreign to me, but I think I'll tackle that once I've got this habit down.

Have also been thinking about the time of day I'm writing. Building a habit is about making it so routine that you don't even think about it anymore. I'm moving my writing times around a lot, so I think I need to find a time where it's consistent. Might move it to the morning next week to test it out.

Wednesday, 8 August 2012

I didn't write. Anything. I had to stay late at work for meetings (didn't get home until 10:00pm) and then I was too zonked too write. Admittedly, I watched TV instead of getting home and going right up to my office, but this habit-building stuff isn't going to be easy, right?

Normally, if I miss a goal I pile all the work up onto the next day and then feel so overwhelmed by it I find excuses not to do it. But I'm not going to do that to myself.

If I miss a day of writing, I miss it. I don't need to make it up the next day, I just need to make sure the next day I sit my butt in the chair and write.

It's like flossing my teeth. I have a good habit in place where I floss my teeth every weekday while I'm brushing in the morning. Sometimes I'm rushed and I skip the flossing, but I don't floss my teeth twice the next day to make up for it. And I have a great set of teeth (mostly thanks to my orthodontist - 4 years of braces - that's a lot of braces!). I must be doing some things right!

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

I love my writing friends and want to support them, but I'll be honest, I haven't always known the best way to help them out when they've released their babies into the world ...

Author Shawna Romkey posted the following blog post about a month ago and it sums up all the things you can do to support your fave authors. Hope you find it as useful as I did!! (As a side note, Kobo is the name of an e-reader we use in Canada ... so it might be a new word for you) :)

Do you have an author you love, like, are a fan of or just want to plain old support? These are the six things you can do to help them out.

1. Like their book. Find their book on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads and “like” it. The more “likes” a book has, the more “like”ly it is to sell. If no one has liked it, a potential buyer may not want to try it.

2. Tag the book. On Amazon.com you have the ability to add “tags” to the book. If you scroll down past the reviews, you’ll find “tags.” What tags do is show keywords that the book is about, so someone looking for a book on dogs might type in the word “dogs.” If your friend has written a book on dogs, add the keyword “dogs” to their tags. That makes their book more likely to come up in a search of that word. If your friend has written a romance, add the tag “romance.” If it is about “vampires” you can add that, as well as whatever else comes to mind: “horror,” “paranormal,” “gothic” etc… Add the author’s name. Add any other titles the author has written. Add whatever you can think that’s relevant. The more tags, the more searchable the book will be.

3. Review the book. Reviews sell books, plain and simple. Give the book a read, go to the big 4 sites I mentioned above (Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads) and review it or rate it. The review doesn’t have to be perfect. You aren’t writing it for your high school English teacher. It can just be a few lines about why you liked it. Try to avoid giving spoilers in a review.

4. Share the book on Facebook. Share your review after you’ve written it. I know on Amazon that option pops up for you to post your review on FB. If you can, Share it. If your author friend posts it on FB, share it to your list.

5. Tweet it. Just like sharing above, except for Twitter. You are given the option to tweet your review after you do so. Do it. Tweet it. Retweet your friend’s posting of it.

6. Pin it. The new social media giant on the block is Pinterest. It’s number three, right behind Facebook and Twitter. If you haven’t checked it out yet and are bored and have nothing to do, take a look. If you are a busy person, don’t because you’ll become addicted and never get anything done. Go to one of the big sites mentioned above and Pin your friend’s book. Their book will end up in the massive Pinterest feed for hundreds of thousands of people to see, and those people will be able to Re-pin it.

Those are the 6 things you can do to help out your author friends. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Goodreads are the big 4 sites you can go to for their books and to post ratings and reviews. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are the big 3 social media outlets out there to help spread the word.

Inspiration for my "Kennedy's" inspired story.
Now I just need to write it ...
[Photo by gdcgraphics]

I'm a day behind on my Day 3 entry. I did end up writing yesterday (went to a write-in with my pal Tory Leblanc), but it was slow going.

I didn't have a computer so had to write long-hand, and I'm not very good with that. My brain is trying to write much faster than my hand wants to move, so I find it's a tedious way for me to write. I need a computer otherwise it seems like a waste of time to me.

I've also decided that just writing isn't going to be enough here -- I need to have a clear goal in mind for each session, so I'm aiming for 750 words each time. I'll try to get one of those word count links on the side so I can keep track of how I'm doing ... but for now I'll probably just include it in my blog post.

And because this post was fairly boring today I'm uploading a photo of Aaron Eckhart. For no other reason than I think he's hot ...

Friday, 3 August 2012

My writing partner. She doesn't contribute many good ideas but she
does like to take breaks to look up old boyfriends on Facebook.
(Photo by Davide Restivo)

Okay, Day 1 was HARD! As soon as I wrote my blog post I pretty much convinced myself that I'd done enough work for one day and then shut down my Microsoft Word and started to check out movie trailers on IMDB (thank God Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes so many movies - my perfect Beta dream man ...).

It took a lot of "inner goddess" to convince me to actually write (sorry, couldn't help the 50 Shades reference since everyone seems to hate E.L. James, while I think "good for her ... she's writing what she likes and she's selling!"). And I DID write. At first I just skimmed over the last 5 pages I wrote a few weeks ago, mumbled the words "wow, that sucks!" out loud, and then reminded myself that everyone thinks their writing sucks and convinced myself to keep my committment.

And I'm glad I did - I walked away feeling great that I tackled some pages, edited some old ones and even did scene caps for tonight ... which I'm about to use in a few short minutes.

So Day 1 was successful and with a glass of wine in my hand I have no doubt that Day 2 will be as well.

Thursday, 2 August 2012

I remember the days when blogging used to be used as an online journal. I haven't used it as a journal in a long time - now I just use it to write fun posts like what movie I want to see (I don't know why, but Total Recall is grabbing me), or what guy I think is hot (um, okay, Colin Farrell).

My shiny kitchen sink.

I haven't used it as an online journal in a very long time.

But I have to make some changes since I haven't been writing a lot these days. And true confession: I've never successfully made writing a habit that sticks. Regularly. I know I shouldn't say this out loud - I mean an agent or editor might read this and pass me over, right? But I have got to find a way to make writing a regular habit - where I write consistently day after day after day. And maybe even, gasp! - look forward to it!

I recently read Sink Reflections, which is also a habit changing book - albeit about housework. I have a fairly clean house, but I've never been great at keeping it that way day-to-day. I'm usually a 'clean it all up on the weekend, and watch it get messy through the week' kind of girl.

The first thing the author of Sink Reflections tells you to do is clean your sink. Nothing else, just the sink. She swears it works! So, I spent about an hour cleaning it up, and you know what? It's actually made a difference. I stick to her "clutter hotspots" rule, where every night I clean up the places that attract clutter. It only takes about 10 minutes a night, and my house has been clean consistently for about a month.

If I can change my housework patterns, I'm sure I can change my writing patterns. Which is what I'm trying to do today.

For the next 2 weeks I'm going to blog every day, at approximately the same time, and then I'm going to go write. Worst case, it doesn't work ... but I'm going to try to be optimistic.

Monday, 16 July 2012

I went to see the "The Amazing Spider-man" movie this weekend. It was okay. I liked Andrew Garfield more than I thought I would, and my girl-crush on Emma Stone remains solid, and yet still shy of Jim Carrey-like creepiness.

But I wondered the same thing as many others ... why did we need this movie??

Tobey Maguire did a fine job in all 3 Spider-Man movies (and I would dare to say the villains were cooler than The Lizard .. although not much), but I guess when you're guaranteed to make millions of dollars re-packaging something you should go with what works.

I, however, would love to see a remake of my favourite romantic comedies. I still watch my faves over and over, usually all spliced up into about 10 parts on YouTube ... but I do think it would be fun to see a fresh take. And by "fresh take" I mean less 80's clothing and mullets.

This wasn't from the movie ... just a regular night at Kurt
and Goldie's place ...

I know all you purists out there will be mortified to even suggest a remake (I can almost hear Julia Phillips Smith gasping at the suggestion) ... and even I have the good sense not to put a John Hughes movie on this list. But Zac Efron just can't be standing around making horrible Nicholas Sparks movies all day, can he? Those abs are going to waste ...

Here are my nominees for favourite romantic comedies that deserve a remake.

1) Overboard

I'd never realized that mini-putts were so 'high concept'. This movie is pretty flawless as far as I'm concerned, but definitely looks dated. Sleeveless denim shirts? Okay, he still rocks that look ...

2) The Cutting Edge

"Toepick" was my favourite word for about a year. Technically, they've made sequels to this so it probably shouldn't be on the list ... but since they also made sequels to Spider-Man and they rebooted it, you're outvoted.

3) Ever After

Love Drew Barrymore, and loved this movie, but her British accent sucked. And I had such high hopes for Dougray Scott and he seemed to die out a bit after Tom Cruise killed him in Mission Impossible (what would have been had he been able to play Wolverine ..)

4) Mannequin

Have not seen this in years .. kind of like Andrew McCarthy's career ... but I would love to see this again. Although "Lars and the Real Girl" might be considered a more realistic version.

5) Legal Eagles
Remember when Debra Winger could do anything!?! I loved this movie, and it would be easy peasy to remake again ... as long as they don't try to film it with Robert Redford and a heavily-filtered lens. I'm done with that trick ...

What would you remake if you had the money ... and a lot of time on your hands??

Tuesday, 10 July 2012

One of the first things that happened when I became a Golden Heart finalist was that I joined an email loop with all the other finalists. I thought it would be a kick to get to know a couple of other ladies before the conference, but it really turned into a community, and now I'm anxiously awaiting Anaheim to meet all these wonderful ladies.

The Ruby Slippered Sisterhood is a group of GH finalists from 2009, and not only are they a close community as well, but they are serious bloggers and invited each of us to take day on their blog to share our stories.

Today, I'm blogging about the secret society that is being a GH finalist ... I hope you hop over to take a look.

Monday, 18 June 2012

Zooey Deschanel and Liz Meriwether. Probably
laughing at the fact that I'm not published ...

﻿

New Girl is without question my favourite new show this year. It has all kinds of funny, great setups, tons of romantic tension, and ... Schmidt!! What's not to like!!??!!

Liz Meriwether, who writes the show for Fox, says that she often writes when she's feeling mischievous. I think my best writing happens when I'm in that kind of state, but sadly, it's a little hard to feel "mischievous" at 5:30am when I'm trying to cram in writing before the day-job starts and I can barely put instant oatmeal together, let alone write complete sentences.

So once in awhile I need to Make the Mischievous Happen. This is easier said that done, but when I need some inspiration, I almost always turn to my hero. And he, like a good hero that he is, always reminds me why I love to write.

Current inspiration? Aaron Eckhart.
You're welcome.

I collect photos of him (always an actor - easier to mimic them in my books I find if they're living, breathing things ... with a good set of abs, of course) and peruse the photos when the time is necessary. I've done collaging, Microsoft Movie Maker, and am currently setting up a Pinterest account. I'm not sure I need all three mediums in order to gain inspiration to write ... but unlike fashion, finding inspiration should not be relegated to the 'Less is More' category. When you need help writing, it's definitely 'More is More'.

How do you re-inspire yourself when you're stuck? Have you tried collaging? Movie Maker? Pinterest?

Friday, 15 June 2012

I've been a big Jill Mansell fan for the last two years or so. Walked into a bookstore without knowing what I wanted and bought "Rumour Has It" on impulse. Gulped it down in a day ... been a fan ever since.

She writes about women in small town settings and there are usually a couple different love stories in play. She always makes someone who should be a villain into a real person who you end up liking in the end. And it's always a fun read. Always.

Right now I'm reading "Staying at Daisy's" ... it's an older one that I hadn't read before and downloaded it last week since I was going to be on a plane. Hoped to do some work on that flight, but mostly read the book. :)

I know chick lit is supposed to be dead ... but I'm dragging it around like the corpse on Weekend at Bernie's ... not sure I'll ever give it up!!

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

I liked this trailer about a month ago when I first stumbled upon it, but the more I view it, the more I like it. An end of the world premise is not an unusual one in movies today, but making it a comedy and having Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley hooking up (I assume) is definitely not something you see all the time. Although Atonement could have been much different with that pairing ...

In Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, a meteor is destined to crash into Earth in three weeks and there's nothing that can be done to stop it. People quit their jobs, marriages break up and Patton Oswalt (who I loved in Young Adult) sleeps with anything that moves.

Dodge (Steve Carell) and Penny (Keira Knightley) use their time to go on a road trip: she's looking to reunite with her family and he's looking for a highschool sweetheart.

It's anyone's guess what happens in the end (I'm guessing end of the world crisis suddenly averted - all bets open 'til Friday), but from this trailer it looks like the journey to 'end of days' features a lot of funny moments and at least one trip to TGIF. And if you can end the world scarfing down potato skins and green bean fries, then it can't be all bad.

Near the end of the session she had us do an exercise to figure out what could make our books great.

Write down three of our favourite books

Figure out what these three books have in common

My faves were Bridget Jones Diary (Helen Fielding), Persuasion (Jane Austen) and About a Boy (Nick Hornby). Clearly, I have a little bit of a chick-lit theme going on.

After thinking about all three and what they had in common, I realized that in the context of that particular story, each one of the main characters felt like they didn't belong - they were outsiders.

Bridget Jones - she's not in a relationship and doesn't have a real career and yet everyone else (except her core group of friends) has those things. She feels like she's fallen behind.

Anne Eliot - she doesn't fit in with her family at all. They're either vain or vapid (or both) and when Captain Wentworth returns and everyone loves him, she feels like she's outside looking in, since she kissed him off years ago and now has to avoid him.

Will Lightman is a jobless thirty-six year old living off his father's success as a one-time songwriter. Without a job or a family, he's completely on the outside of society, until he meets 12-year old Marcus who is also having a hard time fitting in.

Why do I like characters who don't fit in? I suppose that's a question for my therapist (probably should get one of those). But when I look at my own writing, I definitely see that same theme play out.

Thursday, 24 May 2012

I'll admit that I'm normally the kind of girl who goes for the "beta" guy. You know, Jason Bateman, James McAvoy, Paul Bettany ... not likely to be in a movie where they're running around killing people, but certainly the kind of guy you want to have by your side if you're picking out a new couch for your living room while bantering with you about your love of faux-suede.

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But once in awhile I get a little craving for an "alpha" ... and Channing Tatum, in all his shirtless glory, often has to be called up from the farm team to fill that void. I remember first seeing him in "Step Up" and thinking he was charming ... but as the movie roles piled up (She's The Man, Dear John, The Vow) I realized the wardrobe department must have to get their "men's tanks" through some kind of wholesale discount - cuz there's a lot of 'em.
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Is it me or am I ROCKIN' this tie clip ...

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My three favourite Channing Tatum movies are The Vow, 21 Jump Street and She's The Man. But I'm waiting anxiously for the release of Magic Mike to see if it makes a dent in my top three. And who knows? Maybe the tearaway pant will be his new "go to" wardrobe staple.

Watching upcoming movie trailers on IMDB is a huge timesuck, but every once in awhile a trailer shows up and I'm stuck wondering "what am I going to busy myself with while waiting for this to come out!!??!!"

Case in point ... SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.

Fun fact - apparently this classified ad actually appeared in a newspaper. The guy at that newspaper must see some crazy-ass stuff!

First off, it has Jake Johnson (slacker sexy), who I'm a HUGE fan of now that I'm addicted to New Girl on Tuesday nights. Secondly, it's a romantic comedy. I will watch just about anything that's a romantic comedy (I've seen Cutting Edge 2 and 3 ... seriously, I'm not picky).

So now I will watch this trailer about 8 gazillion times and hope that it opens in Halifax, because if I have to wait for this thing to come out on DVD it's gonna kill me!

(Please note: If you know of any activities that I can pass the time with between now and June 8, please send immediately)

The question of "when did you know you want to write?" comes up once in awhile. I always hate this question because I don't have the same answer as most people, who apparently starting journalling their inner thoughts in the womb (waterproof keypad I suppose) ... and I always feel a bit inadequate that I came to the decision much later in life ... and for a much shallower reason.

When the BBC released their version of Pride and Prejudice, I hadn't even heard of the story. I'd heard of Jane Austen, of course, but only because I'd seen Sense and Sensibility and thought it was quite fantastic and so I thought this Jane Austen person's miniseries might be worth a look.

It was six hours long. Six hours! And I was glued to my seat the whole time in what I like to refer to as a "full-on Darcy trance." The lake scene was replayed dozens of times that weekend, mostly while I scarfed down Cheetos and Diet Coke, and I literally fell in love with Colin Firth (his public relations manager has since wrote me to tell me it's not actual 'love' and that I should stop sending photos .. and invitations to dinner ... and hair clippings ... ).

After that I started concocting all of these stories that were just various takes on the Mr. Darcy character. Of course in my versions he had a tendency to run around without pants a lot, but everyone has their own "vision" of a story.

Since that time I've stopped thinking of stories where Colin Firth figures prominently and actually moved onto writing real stories. I've joined a writing group, started and stopped several novels, got some critique partners and finalled in some contests.

But it really was Colin Firth who got me started on the whole thing (and Helen Fielding had her part too by showing me the way with Bridget Jones).

And even though my path to writing isn't as pure-hearted as some of my colleagues, I know I'm on the right path. It doesn't matter how I got here ... I'm just glad I found it. Because let's be honest ... those "Colin Firth without pants" stories are not going to write themselves ...